'Dreamgirls' returns to its Apollo Theater roots

NEW YORK 
"Dreamgirls" has come home with its glitter, glitz and gusto mostly intact.

A revival of Broadway's iconic interpretation of a girl group's rise to pop-music power is now playing a brief engagement (before beginning a national tour) at Harlem's legendary Apollo Theater, which happens to be the setting for the opening and closing scenes of the musical.

The show's original sizzle was supplied in 1981 by director-choreographer Michael Bennett who staged the musical with a ferocity of movement that this production, under the guidance of Robert Longbottom, attempts to honor. For much of the time, it succeeds, although Tom Eyen's book bogs things down in the second act when the musical trips over its attempt to tie up the plot with a sudsy, saccharin ending.

The constraints of touring have given the show a leaner, less elaborate look, much of it supplied by grids of lights that twist and turn to provide the constant cinematic motion required to tell the lengthy show-biz saga of a black trio of singers called the Dreams. Their journey, vaguely similar to the real-life travails of the Supremes, spans more than a decade – from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s.

Fortunately, this revival has not skimped on performance power, starting with the pivotal role of Effie White, first played on Broadway by Jennifer Holliday and then in the more recent film version by the Oscar-winning Jennifer Hudson. Moya Angela proves a worthy successor to both ladies.

It's Effie's story that provides "Dreamgirls" with its dramatic punch – her being cast aside for a more glamorous substitute to make the Dreams more commercially palatable to white audiences.

Angela has the industrial-strength vocal ability for the show's first-act show-stopper, "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going." The song is one of those galvanizing, gut-wrenching numbers that goes a long way toward explaining the potent hold musical theater can have on audiences. And Angela is a fine actress, too, capturing Effie's defiant, almost disagreeable side as she experiences the ups and downs of a pop singer's life.

Much of the supporting cast gives sturdy support, from Syesha Mercado as Deena, the Dream elevated to lead singer; Adrienne Warren as the third member of the trio; Chaz Lamar Shepherd as the group's manipulative manager; and Trevon Davis as Effie's earnest songwriting brother.

Chester Gregory aggressively courts audience approval as James "Thunder" Early, the flamboyant James Brown-inspired performer whose show-biz ride is as bumpy as Effie's, only in the other direction. The actor's strenuously embroidered performance – a parade of coos, clucks, swoops and swirls – wins a lot of laughs but its cartoonish outlines undercut the character's poignant decline in Act 2.

"Dreamgirls" features an ambitious, nearly sung-through score, lyrics by Eyen and evocative, period tunes filtered through more traditional musical-theater melodies by Henry Krieger. The production has even added a song from the movie – "Listen," which manages to cement the reconciliation between Effie and Deena.

One of the more eye-popping elements of this "Dreamgirls" is its colorful costumes by William Ivey Long, an homage to the show's original designer, Theoni V. Aldredge. Long's clothes, particularly a parade of dazzling and often witty gowns for the Dreams, instantly place the musical in a certain time – and those gowns often change with breathtaking speed. Mention should also be made of Paul Huntley's wigs, which recall an era when "more bouffant the better" prevailed.